Mary Bunting (1910-1998) was an influential American college president responsible for fully integrating women into Harvard University. Her work set in motion college education standards for women that are still in place today. For those of you tuning in for the first time, welcome! Here’s the deal: Every weekday, we highlight the stories of iconic women in history you may not know about, but definitely should. We’re talking about women from around the world and throughout history. Each month is themed. This month we’re going back to school, highlighting educators and intellectuals.
This month, we're going back to school with stories of the most influential women educators in history.
History classes can get a bad wrap, and sometimes for good reason. When we were students, we couldn’t help wondering... where were all the ladies at? Why were so many incredible stories missing from the typical curriculum? Enter, Encyclopedia Womannica. On this Wonder Media Network podcast we explore the lives of inspiring women in history you may not know about, but definitely should.
Every weekday, listeners explore the trials, tragedies, and triumphs of groundbreaking women throughout history who have dramatically shaped the world around us. In each 5 minute episode, we’ll dive into the story behind one woman listeners may or may not know -- but definitely should. These diverse women from across space and time are grouped into easily accessible and engaging monthly themes like Educators, Villains, Indigenous Storytellers, Activists, and many more. Encyclopedia Womannica is hosted by WMN co-founder and award-winning journalist Jenny Kaplan. The bite-sized episodes pack painstakingly researched content into fun, entertaining, and addictive daily adventures.
Encyclopedia Womannica was created by Liz Kaplan and Jenny Kaplan, executive produced by Jenny Kaplan, and produced by Liz Smith, Grace Lynch, Maddy Foley, Brittany Martinez, Edie Allard, Lindsey Kratochwill, Sundus Hassan, Adesuwa Agbonile, Carmen Borca-Carrillo, Taylor Williamson, and Ale Tejada. Special thanks to Shira Atkins.
We are offering free ad space on Wonder Media Network shows to organizations working towards social justice. For more information, please email Jenny at pod@wondermedianetwork.com.
Follow Wonder Media Network:
Hello! From Wonder Media Network, I’m Jenny Kaplan and this is Womanica.
For those of you tuning in for the first time, welcome! Here’s the deal: Every weekday, we’re highlighting the stories of women you may not know about, but definitely should. We’re talking about women from around the world and throughout history. Each month is themed. This month we’re going back to school, highlighting educators and intellectuals.
Today, we’re talking about someone who revolutionized higher education for women. She saw the bias built into the US college system and worked to make schooling more accessible. Today, women who attend US universities still use many of the practices she put in place, probably without even knowing it. Today, we’re talking about Mary Bunting.
Mary was born in Brooklyn in 1910. She was one of four children to Mary Shotwell Ingraham and Henry Ingraham, a couple who highly valued education. Mary was president of the Young Women’s Christian Association and a member of the New York City Board of Higher Education, and Henry was a lawyer and one of the co-founders of Long Island College of Medicine.
Despite being the child of two educators, and a future top educator herself, Mary didn’t like school all that much growing up. She experienced sickness as a child and didn’t attend classes regularly until high school. And even then, she once said of school: “I was glad to get rid of it in the afternoon and get back to something interesting.”
Still, Mary went on to study beyond high school. She received an undergraduate degree in physics at Vassar College and a master’s and doctorate in agricultural bacteriology at the University of Wisconsin. There, she also met her future husband, Henry Bunting, through their common interests of hiking and bird watching.
The couple married in 1937 and moved to Connecticut where they raised four children together. Henry became faculty at Yale University, and Mary turned to her own research on the effects of radiation on bacteria. During this time, Mary remained invested in educational pursuits, serving on library and school boards in her spare time.
Over the years, Henry’s health declined.. In 1954, he died of brain cancer, and Mary was faced with a new question: what was she going to do with her children with Henry gone?
Less than a year after Henry’s death, Mary was offered a new opportunity to become Dean of Douglass College, the women’s college of Rutgers University where she was a professor.
In 1958, Mary was invited to a National Science Foundation committee created to improve the nation’s performance in the field of science. In a series of tests designed to figure out what blocked strong students from continuing into careers in science, Mary saw one big problem: of all 16 to 19-year old who scored in the top 10% on aptitude tests and did not go on to college, 98% were women.
At the time, women had serious barriers to access college education. Endowments for women’s colleges were much lower than those of their male counterparts. Perhaps , most importantly, curriculum requirements didn’t accommodate the different societal expectations for women. For example, many universities made it near-impossible for students to attend part-time. As a result, women who had to care for children during the day at home could not attend.
Mary made it her mission to redesign the education system to accommodate and encourage women to study. She got her first chance at serious reform when in 1960, she became president of Radcliffe College, the undergraduate women’s college at Harvard University. There, she saw the stark differences between the ways men and women were treated on the same campus. Women were given bunk beds in assigned rooms rather than Harvard’s “house” system, and they were excluded from Harvard’s libraries and dining halls.
Mary set about changing the campus. She organized the dorms into a house system, built Radcliffe its own library, and created search committees to go into low-income neighborhoods and offer scholarships to potential students. She also created the Radcliffe Institute for Independent Study in 1961. This was a historic shift in funding women’s education: it supported research into women’s studies and supported the work of female artists, scientists, and scholars regardless of their marital or familial responsibilities at home. Today, we know it as the Bunting Institute.
Mary cultivated a connection to her students, as well. She was a well-known figure, both for her strong attitudes on institutional change, and for her particularities. Some stories say she brought two unforgettable pets with her to her Radcliffe house: a bee hive, and a cow.
If her porch light was on, it was a well-known sign on campus that her door was open for study sessions, heart-to-hearts or simple chats.
In 1972, Mary successfully established the co-residency of Harvard and Radcliffe colleges. This meant women attending Radcliffe could live on Harvard’s campus, and men attending Harvard could do the same at Radcliffe. Full integration between the two schools wouldn’t occur until 1999.
After achieving co-residency, Mary retired as president in 1972. She married her second husband, Dr. Clement A. Smith, a Harvard faculty member, in 1979. In her later years, she continued to consult at Princeton and on government advisory boards.
After six years of failing health, Mary died in 1998 at the age of 87.
All month, we’re talking about women who changed the world of education.
For more on why we’re doing what we’re doing, check out our newsletter Womannica Weekly.
Follow us on Facebook and Instagram @womanica
Special thanks to Liz Kaplan, my favorite sister and co-creator.
Talk to you tomorrow!